


to fight the cold

by mokumera (apricari)



Category: One Piece
Genre: Ace Lives, Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, M/M, Mention of Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:47:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26703187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apricari/pseuds/mokumera
Summary: “My brothers and I promised each other we’d live our lives exactly how we wanted,” Ace says quietly. “Without regret. I didn’t realize at the time how hard that would be.”Smoker flicks his cigar butts into the water. “It’s hard when you give a shit about other people. Your kin, your nakama.”“Your lover,” says Ace.“I don’t regret what I did.”“I know. It’s...” he licks his lips. “Reconciling it. Always takes a while.”
Relationships: Portgas D. Ace/Smoker
Comments: 4
Kudos: 63





	to fight the cold

The _Thousand Sunny_ is as noisy and chaotic as Smoker imagined, and more so at mealtime. Unceremoniously, the blond cook—Sanji, Smoker supposes he should call them by their names now he’s a part of their crew—kicks him out of the kitchen as he starts to plate the food.

“Go find Ace, shitty Marine” the cook says. The titles have stuck. “And hurry up, or the food will be gone.”

Smoker finds him leaning against the railing on the balcony outside of the aquarium bar. He looks wary as Smoker approaches.

“That bastard cook wants you to get to dinner.”

For the first time since he met the kid, he doesn’t jump at the chance for food. He stays at the railing as Smoker leans himself, drawing on his cigars.

“No one was supposed to know. No one but my family,” Ace says at last. “Now everyone knows.”

“So they know. Who cares what they think?”

“It’s not really about what they think. I’ve dealt with this my whole life. Living out of spite...it’s not that easy. I got sick of being angry all the time.” He looks at the palms of his hands. “I found people who...love me. Impossibly. Despite what I am. I live for them. But now that everyone knows...now that Pops is gone...

“My brothers and I promised each other we’d live our lives exactly how we wanted,” he says quietly. “Without regret. I didn’t realize at the time how hard that would be.”

Smoker flicks his cigar butts into the water. “It’s hard when you give a shit about other people. Your kin, your nakama.”

“Your lover,” says Ace.

“I don’t regret what I did.”

“I know. It’s...” he licks his lips. “Reconciling it. Always takes a while.”

When Ace’s eyes light on him, they seem impossibly deep, a pit. Smoker’s trapped.

He hadn’t gotten a good look at Roger’s face when he was up on the execution platform; it had been too far away. He wonders how similar they are. Ace’s eyes are dark, but there’s a light in them, a lit match—usually. Now his eyes are vacant, like the flame has been snuffed.

“You couldn’t have known going after Teach would lead to all this,” Smoker tells him.

“Maybe if I’d listened to Pops in the first place, he’d still be alive.”

“You don’t know that.”

“He told me I didn’t have to go after Teach. But one of my own subordinates had murdered our nakama. In cold blood for his own gain. I couldn’t let that go.”

“Do you regret that you stuck with your principles?”

“No.”

“Then you can’t regret where you are now. You understand?”

Ace looks down, like he can’t quite agree. “When I was up there on the platform, I couldn’t believe how many people existed who wanted me to live. I was...it didn’t seem real. Now I can’t help thinking, I should have died out there. With Pops. Selfish, huh?” It’s a hollow look. “I can’t help it.”

Smoker touches his face to feel fire’s heat there, skin to skin, and strokes his cheek with the back of his hand. Slow and careful, so unlike how they touch. The shiver that courses through Ace is new too. He tilts his head into the contact, and Smoker is relieved: the kid smiles.

“You should be here,” Smoker says.

“With you?” There’s a little light in Ace’s eyes after all.

“You are.”

“Uh huh. I definitely am. That’s cheap, y’know. Distracting me like that.”

“Your brother.”

“Excuse me?”

“You should be here for your brother.”

Ace steps back and surveys him with an unreadable expression. Smoker would never doubt that they are brothers—Straw Hat and Ace. Too many similarities. “I will be.”

Smoker takes out two cigars and lights them before he remembers he’s out here to get Ace for dinner. “For what it’s worth, kid,” says Smoker on the exhale, “I don’t think Newgate would’ve thought there was a better way to go out than protecting his own.”

Ace is quiet. When Smoker looks at him, his throat works once, and he blinks.

“I think you’re right,” he replies. 

-

There’s six beds in the men’s quarters, and Smoker wouldn’t sleep in there anyway just from imagining the noise. In the end, the navigator gives him and Ace each brightly-colored bundles.

“Pick a spot,” she says. “It can be anywhere but the women’s quarters or the kitchen.”

They spread out in the aquarium bar, lining their bundles together without a word. The room glows cool blue. Next to him, Ace sheds heat like the fire he is.

“I thought about telling you, you know?” Says the kid. “When you caught up to me before Banaro. I knew I was close to Teach. Nothing ever phases you. I thought about what it would be like to tell someone and for them to not react.”

“Why didn’t you?” Smoker says, without his own permission.

“Why d’you think? At first I thought, what if he’s not indifferent? Then I realized the whole idea was just a fantasy. But I couldn’t imagine your face any way other than your stupid scowl.

“I froze up. Then I pretended it got to me less than the thought of you hating me. In the end, I just told myself I’d kill Teach. I’d go back to Pops...we wouldn’t see each other again. You wouldn’t have to know I’m Roger’s kid, and I’d never have to know how you’d react.”

They lay in clear silence. Even the water lapping in the aquarium seems a far-away sound. Heat radiates off of Ace, hot enough it’s on the edge of too much, and Smoker’s about to dissolve. He lets himself hold Ace closer.

“Thank you,” says Ace, “for choosing me.”

“You expected me to stay with the Marines.”

“I didn’t expect you to risk anything to help me.”

“You get it now, kid?”

“Yeah.” Ace is smiling. Smoker cups the back of his head with one hand and draws him in. “I get it, old man.”

They kiss, and only a moment later it’s deep and longing. Smoker can only see, in his mind’s eye, the image of Ace stepping onto the execution platform, kneeling on the unforgiving wood. For not the first time, Smoker can’t quite believe he’s alive.

“Can’t get ahold of any of this,” Ace echos when they part, catching his breath. “Doesn’t feel real, does it?”

“Didn’t know if I’d have you again,” Smoker says, and the kid nods frantically.

“Yeah. When they came to get me from that cell I—“ Smoker kisses him again. Ace pushes the covers aside, lays over him, and they’re both dissolving, smoke wrapping around Ace’s body and flame licking up in response, lighting up the room.

“Didn’t mean to take it this far,” he breathes against Smoker’s lips.

“What d’you mean?” Smoker rumbles.

Ace shakes his head and runs his hands down Smoker’s chest. He licks Smoker’s neck, and it’s white-hot, like scorching water against freezing skin. It aches.

“Didn’t mean to change you,” Ace says, and Smoker gets lost in the heat.

**Author's Note:**

> Years ago I shipped these two intensely. Lately I read ‘still worship the flame’ by crownsandbirds, and I fell in love with this ship all over again.
> 
> I have not read or watched One Piece in maybe 10 years, so apologies if I get anything wrong.
> 
> Unbeta’d.


End file.
